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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Klara Halberstadt-Carels papers

Document | Accession Number: 2013.320.1

Correspondence and other documents related to the claims that Klara Halberstadt-Carels filed against I.G. Farben, seeking compensation for medical experiments that were performed on her during her imprisonment at Auschwitz. This file contains a photocopy of a form identifying Halberstadt as a displaced person in the Netherlands (1945); correspondence from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (1952), explaining the conditions under which claimants can pursue compensation from I.G. Farben; and subsequent correspondence from the Tripartite I.G. Farben Control Group (1952-1954), responding to her claim, and ultimately denying it.

Klara Halberstadt-Carels was born in Amsterdam on 16 July 1921. During the time of the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands, she was an employee of a raincoat factory in Amsterdam. She was subsequently deported to Auschwitz, where she was a prisoner from October 1943 until the camp's liberation in January 1945, and at some point also worked as a forced laborer outside of the camp. While at Auschwitz, she was subjected to a number of involuntary medical experiments, and after the war, filed a compensation claim against I.G. Farben. The claim was denied in 1954, as representatives of I.G. Farben denied that the "experiment block" at Auschwitz was operated by I.G. Farben, and that the munitions factory that she worked in at one point, in Malchow (Parchim district), was not operated by the firm either.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.